Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-01-07
CRUSHED AND ROASTED,
A Fast Train CollideS With a Freight
While Running 6S Miles an Hour.
Nineteen Charred and Manned Bodies
Taken From the Burning Debris.
Many More Fatally Injured Careless
ness the CauSe-Terrible Scenes.
ANOTHER RAILROAD HORROR,

Death and Destruction the Result of Some
ones CarleSsnesS
! TIFr.N. o., Jan. 4.--The fast train on
! the Baltimore i Ohio at an early hour
| this morning collided with the freight
| train seven miles east of this city, wreck
| ing both trains. Nineteen bodies have
been taken from the wreck. Many more
were injured. Physicians have gone
! from here.
Details of the wreck are meager. The
| fast line. which left New York about .
o'clock yesterday morning with five com
mon coaches, four sleepers and three
baggage and express cars for Chicago,
collided with an east-bound freight and
Is nov shapeless and burning
wreck. The fast train was about one
hour late, and was running at the rate of
sixty miles an hour, passing Republic,
the first station east of here. Like a
flash of lightning they rushed upon the
curve one mile west of that village. and
the next instant a fearful crash came
which hurled into eternity nineteen per
sons, and injured-some fatally thirty
others.
When the engineer of the express dis
covered the approaching freight, they
were within hundred yards of each 9th
or, and, although the brakes we're applied
and the engine reversed, it was too late
The engine of the fast train is on top of
the freight engine, and the coaches and
sleepers are telescoped, and to add horror
to the disaster
FIRE ARoKK OUT
In the smoking car, and soon spread to
the other coaches, and while many were
killed outright, more were wedged in
among the broken cars and slowly con-
sumed by the devouring and relentless
flames. The screams of the wounded and
dying were heart-rending, bat no imme-
diate assistance could be given. Not un-
til farmer, aroused by the crash, came
with his neighbors, who labored with in
defatigable zeal to rescue the dead and
dying, was relief obtained.
The engineer and fireman of the freight
leaped and saved themselves from the
collision. The engineer of the express,
named Eastman, had one leg broken and
sustained a severe wound in shoulder
His fireman was caught between the en-
gine and tender, and died within few
minutes. The baggageman of the ex-
press was thrown through the roof of his
car, escaping with broken leg. The
express messenger who was sitting next
to him, was killed instantly. No one in
the sleepers were injured in the least
The shock was so great that farmers in
the neighborhood took it to be an earth
quake and were soon at the scene of the
wreck.
In the confusion of the wreck, hot
dispute arose among the trainmen as to
THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DISASTER.
1t appears that the freight train was run
Ling on the time of the express; the en-
ginee. was heard to remark that he left
me last siding with 30 pounds of steam
and on the up grade east of Tiffln his
engine went back on him and the train
stalled. No change of signals was sent
out ahead and the engineer of the ex-
press, coming at full speed down grade
and around curve, had no warming of
the impending disaster until an instant
before the collision.
At this writing, nineteen bodies have
been taken from the burning mass, and
the charred and manned bodies lie side
by side in the snow, a ghastly monument
to incapacity or criminal negligence.
Assistance was sent from this city as
soon as the news of the disaster reached
here. 1t is fearful spectacle, and vivid
ly recalls the Ashtabula horror of the win
ter of 1877.